Magnetic resonance (MR) coils are used for biomedical and other applications. The coils are used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as well as magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and electron spin resonance (ESR), functional MRI (fMRI) and other magnetic resonance modalities.
Some magnetic resonance coils, such as a multi-channel parallel imaging coil, have 96 or more discrete channels some of which include multiple RF signal lines, power supply lines, control lines, physiological monitoring lines, communication lines, physiological stimuli lines and other electrically conductive or optically conductive lines and cables.
Each channel of a multi-channel radio frequency (RF) coils used for MR applications is electrically connected to a driver circuit, receiver circuit, or both a driver and receiver circuit. In addition, multiple cables, power lines and control lines combine to make an unwieldy bundle of cables that can impair the medical procedure. In particular, with a large number of cables, the ease of use, flexibility, versatility, quality of performance and ergonomics of the coil are reduced. Signal losses are also a problem with the long cables required.